North Richmond residents say “people are scared” to walk streets near safe injecting room
North Richmond residents who say they are “terrified” and “scared” to walk down the street, have gathered together at a heated community meeting to discuss the controversial safe injecting room.
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North Richmond residents who say they are “terrified” have gathered together at a community meeting to discuss the suburb’s controversial safe injecting room.
Following an initial meeting last month, concerned locals came together on Wednesday night to talk about issues surrounding the injecting room and discuss solutions.
Young parents, longtime locals and elderly residents were among more than 200 people who crammed into the beer garden of the All Nations Hotel, across the road from the injecting room.
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Some called for the injecting room to be moved to another place, while others suggested keeping the current one going and opening more around Melbourne to dilute the concentration of users in North Richmond.
Reason Party MP Fiona Patten was booed and shouted at by some in the crowd when it was her turn to speak at the meeting, which was convened by City of Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly.
She told the crowd there had been community consultation, but residents’ voices had not been “heard”.
Marilyn Sinclair has lived in Abbotsford for 23 years and said the facility’s knock-on effects were harmful to the local area.
“There’s absolutely been a degradation in the local area since the centre’s been open,” she said.
“People are terrified, restaurants are closing and drug-affected people are threatening people in supermarkets.”
“Users are coming from all across Melbourne because they know there are a lot of drug dealers in North Richmond now.”
Another resident, who went by the name of “Ugly”, said: “We must have control of this, as ourselves and as a community”.
“People are scared.”
Richmond local Jamie, who didn’t want to disclose his surname, said that after 50 years in the area he was considering moving away.
“It’s not safe here anymore, I can’t walk down the street without people asking me if I’m chasing drugs,” he said.
Following the meeting, a residents committee was established, with the primary aim of presenting the council and state government with solutions to the problems caused by the injecting room.